Nie Er, formerly Nie Shouxin, was born in Yuxi, Southwest China's Yunnan Province on February 15, 1912. He was a famous, self-educated contemporary composer in China.

Nie showed his keen interest in folk music from a very young age. He attended the progressive student movement during the Great Revolution and traveled to Shanghai at age 18 to join the Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe where he studied musical composition under Li Jinhun. Unsatisfied with the troupe's guidelines, Nie left the troupe in 1932 to launch his own revolutionary musical movement with Li Yuanqing and others in Beijing. Later, he returned to Shanghai to establish the Chinese Burgeoning Musical Seminar. Nie began to create a series of works, reaching the height of his creations in 1934. In 1935, he composed the March of the Volunteers, which later became the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. Within just two years, Nie wrote more than 20 theme songs and episodes for eight movies, three dramas and one living theater. With another 15 re-worked songs, Nie created 41 scores in total.

The zenith of Nie's genius was his March of the Volunteers, which finally became the national anthem of People's Republic of China. The song was originally the theme song of the film, Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm, which tells the story of people at the front fighting Japanese invaders in northeast China in the 1930s.

The name, Nie Er, has an interesting history.

Nie loved music so much that he learned to play many instruments by himself, such as the Sanxian (three-stringed instrument), Huqin (two-stringed bowed instrument) and Yueqin (four-stringed, moon-shaped Chinese mandolin). He was also skilled at imitating other people's voices and various sounds. Nie, who used to entertain people by moving his ears back and forth, was nicknamed Er (ears). Nie liked the name very much and changed it legally to Nie Er.

On July 17, 1935, Nie drowned swimming at Fujiwasa Beach on his way to study in the USSR via Japan. He was only 24 years old.